Half of the company members of Gemini Collisionworks/Life With Althaar met up on Saturday night at a great performance of Adam Szymkowicz's play Clown Bar 2 at the Parkside Lounge on the Lower East Side, NYC.
Company member Chris Lee was in the show, which was also co-produced by member Philip Cruise -- both of them writer/actors in Althaar. Chris is also co-owner of the Parkside, a great bar that has had no small influence on the Electric Egg and on Chris's performance as Chip Frinkel.
(photo by Jen Ferguson of 12 Collisionworkers and 2 spouses -- includes the performers of Radio Free Fairgrounds, Cmdr. Torianna, Hardyfox Fornes, Chip Frinkel, Stalin-Bot, Mrs. Frondrinax, Ens. Dormer, Amber? on the Bridge, Frall, Althaar, the Narrator, and the Weasel)
We had gathered, apart from wanting to see each other, to take a moment to remember and raise our glasses to our beloved company member Rolls Andre, who died on April 4 at the age of 52.
Rolls was a great person and a great actor. I had expected to have a few more decades of getting to know and work with him. He acted in three plays with Gemini CollisionWorks -- Cant and ReFuse by myself and Harakiri Kane by Dean Haspiel -- and played 5 roles across 10 episodes of Althaar, most notably as George Foreman-Bot.
He also played the title role in King Lear in a live Zoom reading during COVID lockdown that GCW co-produced, which also features many Althaar actors, and can be seen HERE. This was a dream role for Rolls, and it continues to make me happy that we supported him in getting to do it, and so terrifically.
A few more pictures of Rolls in our shows, and one with me (who he always called "Skipper" or "Skip," I called him "Straw"):
I, and all of us at GCW, will miss this great man. I have to rewrite bits of episodes 34 and 36 of Althaar to deal with losing him, and it is a sad, depressing job. George Foreman-Bot had some important things to say that we were building to, and it was because I had Rolls's voice that I thought they could be said properly.
There was much discussion about, and demanding from the company towards, starting Althaar production up again ASAP, and indeed, this sad, tragic event may be a necessary kick in the ass to that happening.
We will definitely be back. Now for Rolls as much as for anything else.
Thank you for your attention; it is a pleasure working for you.
